Sound Off for Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013

On Leonard Pitts: If you are gullible enough to believe the nonsense in Leonard Pitts' column Oct. 9, I'm sorry for your narrow-mindedness. He continues to get paid for throwing gasoline on situations that need careful consideration and compromise. Calling Republicans cranks, outliers, brats and bums falls way below what I consider the standard for a Pulitzer Prize winner. To quote this professional journalist, what a crock.-- Leonard Pitts' Oct. 9 article is in such bad taste and only looks at one side of the problem. What about the Democrats who got this law passed by bribery, thuggery and lying? On military death benefits: On Oct. 11, a brief said “Bill OK'd to pay military death benefits.” It says the lapse in funding meant the Pentagon had no authority to continue payments to military families. That's untrue. Congress passed the law before government was shut down stating that military members would receive any money they had coming. The Obama administration chose to ignore that law.On Obamacare: AP managed to find one person in America that claimed they had a good experience with Obamacare. They found a policy that's only going to cost them $1,500 a month. What a deal.-- To the Sound Off caller who said their insurance rate went up because of Obamacare, it does not go into effect until Jan. 1. Your current insurance raised your rates, not Obamacare. Read, study, get your facts straight. It's not that difficult.On state tax cut: Gov. Walker proposes a $100 million tax cut. Yippee. On the same day in the paper, there is a story about the city and the county both raising our tax levy over 2 percent. How are we ever going to win? It never stops. On school pay: Superintendent Karen Schulte says she has $600,000 to give for bonuses, and she wants to give it to administrators. At the same time, the JEA is asking for a 1 percent raise, and the district says we don't have enough money. How is that fair to the teachers who work directly with these kids and got these great teaching results?-- I have been opposed to the teachers union because of their childish behavior over the past several years, but I am in favor of giving the teachers a bonus as proposed by the school superintendent because of the recent good teaching results, but no bonus for the overpaid and overstaffed administrators.-- Regarding the article “Money for good grades?” parents should be proud for the hard work they have done with their children. Because of this, their children do well in school, and the school gets good report cards. Keep up the good work. -- Superintendent Schulte states she is delighted with the district report cards and wanted all staff to receive a bonus. What happens if, in a year or two, she is disappointed with the report cards? Will she ask staff to return money?On football and golf: This is in response to the Sound Off call Oct. 9 complaining about golf being on at the same time as NFL football. I don't watch football, basketball or hockey. I happen to like golf and tennis. I think each to their own. You don't hear me complaining about how many football games there are on TV, so get over it.On Republicans: They can only hang their hat on the issue of barricades around the monuments. They were put there because there are no park service employees available to guard these monuments due to the shutdown. Without protection, the monuments have been damaged in the past. Remember, there are other news outlets besides FOX.On shopping downtown: I would rather drive to the north or northeast side of Janesville and do all my shopping. Plus, they have many restaurants to have my lunch at.On government shutdown: In the election after the last government shutdown, Republicans, contrary to popular belief, gained seats. Yet the political narrative pushed by the media is they took a beating. So if they gain seats in the next election, will the same false narrative be pushed by the media—that they took a political beating? My guess is probably yes.On international program: Thank you, school board member Kevin Murray, for raising questions regarding the initiatives. It seems that the Janesville School District by embarking on the “Journey to Excellence” is helping a company expand its international connections. Knowing questions in advance doesn't sound like transparency to me. Kevin, you are not alone with your questions.On mine: The person speaking of asbestos in the rocks at the proposed mine site in Ashland evidently does not realize the harm that comes with exposure to asbestos. It causes the lungs to eventually be useless after much pain and heartbreak. On wolf plan: A University of Wisconsin student says 350 wolves may be too low to sustain the population. So apparently, when the wolves do their annual census and realize there's only 350, the rest will commit suicide. They admit 800 wolves, and if they take 275, so you have over 500. Two hundred breeding females will add 1,000 pups, so bottom line, you're going to have more wolves next year than you do now.